EAGLE. 



157 



Eagle bearing- off a fragment of its frock, which being- the only part 

 seized, and giving- way, providentially saved the life of the infant. 



" The appetite of the Bald Eagle, though habituated to long fasting, 

 is of the most voracious and often the most indelicate kind. Fish, 

 when he can obtain them, are preferred to all other fare. Young 

 lambs and pigs are dainty morsels, and made free with on all favorable 

 occasions. Ducks, geese, gulls, and other sea fowl, are also seized 

 with avidity. The most putrid carrion, when nothing better can be 

 had, is acceptable ; and the collected groups of gormandising vultures, 

 on the approach of this dignified personage, instantly disperse, and 

 make way for their master, waiting his departure in sullen silence 

 and at a respectful distance, on the adjacent trees. 



" In one of those partial migrations of tree squirrels that some- 

 times take place in our western forests, many thousands of them 

 were drowned in attempting to cross the Ohio ; and at a certain place, 

 not far from Wheeling, a prodigious number of their dead bodies 

 were floated to the shore by an eddy. Here the vultures assembled 

 in great force, and had regaled themselves for some time, when a 

 Bald Eagle made his appearance, and took sole possession of the 

 premises, keeping the whole vultures at their proper distance for 

 several days. He has also been seen navigating the same river on a 

 floating carrion, though scarcely raised above the surface of the water, 

 and tugging at the carcase, regardless of snags, sawyers, planters, or 

 shallows. He sometimes carries his tyranny to great extremes against 

 the vultures. In hard times, when food happens to be scarce, should 

 he accidentally meet with one of those who has its craw crammed with 

 carrion, he attacks it fiercely in the air ; the cowardly vulture instantly 

 disgorges, and the delicious contents are snatched up by the Eagle 

 before they reach the ground. 



" The nest of this species is generally fixed on a very large and lofty 

 tree, often in a swamp, or morass, and difficult to be ascended. On 

 some noted tree of this description, generally a pine or cypress, the Bald 

 Eagle often builds, year after year, for a long series of years. When 

 both male and female have been shot from the nest, another pair have 

 soon after taken possession. The nest is large, being added to and 

 repaired every season, until it becomes a black prominent mass, observ- 

 able at a considerable distance. It is formed of large sticks, sods, 

 earthy rubbish, hay, moss, &c. Many have stated to me that the 

 female lays first a single egg, and that, after having sat on it for some 

 time, she lays another ; when the first is hatched, the warmth of that, 

 it is pretended, hatches the other. Whether this be correct or not, I 

 cannot determine, but a very respectable gentleman of Virginia assured 



